


Sharpie Hearts

by alligatorblood



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Embarrassing High School Feelings, F/F, Fluff, Gay disaster bella obviously, Requested, Rose and her pink glitter gel pen, Supportive Charlie!, i think every pairing needs a Sign My Yearbook? scene, this turned into like a little summer romance thing idk! but it's fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-19 06:42:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29870724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alligatorblood/pseuds/alligatorblood
Summary: After spending all of senior year crushing hard on Rose Hale, Bella realizes she's running out of time to tell her how she feels.
Relationships: Rosalie Hale/Bella Swan
Comments: 73
Kudos: 208





	1. Chapter 1

The last bell of the school year goes off as Bella hands in the last of her library books. The librarian laughs a little at the stack she’s accumulated on the counter. She couldn’t really help it. The school library closes over the summer. She wanted to get through as many as she could before she has to start driving to Port Angeles to get her books.

“Oh, I’m glad you came in,” the librarian says as she twists in her chair to dig through the crate behind her. She pulls out a glossy blue yearbook and holds it out with a smile. “Your dad put the order in.”

Classic Charlie. She’d told him not to bother with a yearbook. It’s a lot of money for something she’ll only be in once or twice. He’s not the most sentimental person, but he seemed pretty firm about her taking the time to enjoy her senior year. It only happens once. And all that. 

“Thanks.” She takes the book and tucks it in her bookbag. It’s heavy and it sticks out about halfway. Forks is small. She can’t imagine how they managed to take so many pictures throughout the year.

As she leaves the library, a group of laughing girls bursts from a classroom and spills out into the hall. They’re obviously supercharged with the idea of freedom and orbiting excitedly around Rose Hale, senior class president, head cheerleader, and all-around center of the known universe. And, coincidentally, also the star of Bella Swan’s every dopey daydream for the past year and a half.

Rose laughs with her friends as they walk toward the exit to the parking lot, about to disappear into the summer air and then eventually the real world in the fall. Bella allows herself a dramatic last sigh at the sight of her, but the air gets caught in her throat as Rose catches her eyes across the hall. She waves with one of her glittery smiles and Bella trips over her own feet.

“Hey, Bella,” Rose says, closer now. Her voice is light and friendly. Are they friends? They spent the year as lab partners, so maybe?

Rose has Sharpie hearts on the toes of her blue Chucks and a braided friendship bracelet around her ankle. “How did you manage to get clumsier since I last saw you?”

“It’s a gift,” Bella mutters lamely, unable to look up. You’re not supposed to look at the sun anyway.

Rose bends to help Bella with her scattered papers. They both reach for her green folder at the same time. Bella’s stomach flutters as their fingers brush. Rose is smiling when she looks up. Her perfume is warm and sweet and copied by at least half the girls in school. Probably some boys too. Her blue eyes glint almost teasingly as Bella pulls her hand away quickly. “Thanks.”

As they stand, Rose holds out the blue book from the crook of her arm. “Sign my yearbook?”

“Uh, sure. Yeah. Let me just-” Bella fumbles for a pen, finding one in the pocket of her flannel. She takes Rose’s yearbook and opens the cover. 

“Can I sign yours?” Rose asks, already reaching over and tugging Bella’s from her bookbag. Her long blond hair brushes against Bella’s arm as she leans in. And there’s her perfume again. Bella feels her blood boiling beneath her skin.

“Go for it,” she squeaks out. 

Rose’s yearbook is already filled to capacity with her millions of friends’ signatures and doodles and declarations of love. Bella has to search for a bit before she finds a decent space in the back. Before she starts, she glances at Rose writing in her own blank yearbook. From all their lab work together she’s come to recognize Rose’s loopy script almost as well as her own. She feels her cheeks redden once again already knowing she’s going to be staring at whatever Rose is writing for weeks to come. Even if it’s something totally tame like, _have a great summer!_

Bella uncaps her pen and tries to collect her thoughts enough to write something coherent for Rose. 

_Rose!! Chem was fun this year! Sorry for the explosions._

_Speaking of explosions... don’t worry, my truck has an appointment at the mechanic for later this week. (I do listen to you. Sometimes.)_

_I liked hanging out with you this year, and maybe we’ll see each other this summer! If not, I hope you have a good break! And good luck at Yale! -Bella Swan_

“Put a star so I can find it later,” Rose says, tapping her pen idly against the page as she thinks of what to write next. “They passed mine around at the assembly earlier. I don’t even know half the people in there.”

Bella scribbles a star next to her message and closes the cover just as Rose clicks her pink gel pen and blows over her writing to dry it. It hits Bella then how final this all is. The last day of their senior year. After today, there’s a pretty good chance she’ll never even get to talk to Rose again. No more guaranteed hour of her attention five days a week, no more overflowing test tubes and playful shoves. No more Rosalie + Bella at the top of every worksheet. It stings a little. Okay, it stings a lot. So much. 

A whole year went by in a blink, and now she sort of wishes she had the guts to ask her out months ago. Even just as friends. But now she’s pretty much out of time, and it doesn’t sit right. 

“Listen, Rose-”

“Hey, I just wanted-”

“Rose! Let’s goooooo!” somebody shouts from another universe entirely, interrupting them both as they interrupt each other.

“Ugh, sorry,” Rose says, passing her book back. She looks a little flustered. “Jas and his stupid lake trip.”

“Yeah,” Bella says awkwardly. “Free at last.”

Rose smiles again, unfairly radiant. She taps her fingers on the top of her yearbook. “Yeah.”

“Go on,” Bella says, nodding toward Rose’s twin who is basically doing jumping jacks at the other end of the rapidly emptying hall to get his sister’s attention. “He’s super into his lake trip.”

“A little too much if you ask me. But you know, Hale family tradition.” She reaches out and touches Bella’s arm as she starts to walk away. “I’ll see you, okay?”

Bella nods once, trying to ignore the heat creeping up her neck at Rose’s light touch. She watches as Rose walks away, her hand lingering on Bella’s arm until she’s simply too far away. Every step she takes pushes Bella further into some strange restless and twitchy state, her only chance fading away. Soon Rose is going to fly off to New Haven and completely forget she ever existed. And then that’s it. 

“Rose!” Bella blurts after her without thinking. She freezes when Rose actually stops and turns, long hair falling over her shoulder, eyes sparkling and expectant. Bella swallows. She didn’t really think this far. Her clumsy silence fills the space between them. When you call someone’s name, when you tell them to wait, you have to make it worth it. Bella isn’t sure that she can. “I- I...”

Rose shakes her head, amused almost. Just like in chemistry when Bella would hand her the wrong-sized beakers on purpose. “I’ll miss you too, Bella.”

…

…

Bella makes it all the way to her truck before her yearbook starts to feel like a hot coal in her hands. She lifts her bag onto the Chevy’s hood and flips almost feverishly, searching for that pink glitter ink. When she finds it, her heart picks up and flies off into the atmosphere. She rolls her eyes at herself and forces her head on right to read the damn message. She’s only been waiting a whole year for something like this.

Despite how shiny and put-together Rose is, her handwriting is pretty bad. The glitter pen doesn’t help, but Bella feels herself grinning like an idiot at the entire page taken up by her long curly letters.

_Please learn how to walk this summer! I’ve included a crude stick-figure diagram to get you started. Study it carefully, I am an expert._

_And Bella!! I can’t believe I had to hear from Jessica that you got into Dartmouth!! That’s amazing! I wish you would’ve told me, we could have celebrated! Even if you’re going to be an_ _English major_ _... I think I can still be seen with you._

_I’m still working my way through Wuthering Heights for you, so I hope for me you’ll at least try to look into getting that truck of yours tuned up. I_ _mean_ _it!_

_And thank you for making Camden’s class bearable this year. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without your complete disregard for the scientific method._

_Anyway! Have a great time this summer sitting in your room reading. You’re always welcome to crash one of Jasper’s stupid parties though. Like seriously. Please save me._

_\- Rose xo_

_p.s. I think the only way Yale could be worth the tuition is if they give me a lab partner who blushes as much as you do._

And if that weren’t enough to rip the floor from beneath Bella, the string of digits underneath would have done the job just as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An anon on tumblr requested that I write a Rosella fic that’s cute and lighthearted “for once.” Which I thought was hilarious. Like ok fine, I’ll put away the blood for One fic!
> 
> To be continued? Maybe? Let me know!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wasn’t expecting the reception of the first chapter, but like… thanks!! So here we go, I guess!! If you guys are into it, maybe it’ll turn into a longer story.

**hey rose, it's bella. just wanted to let you know that the mechanic is now holding my truck hostage because it's "literally undrivable." i think this is your fault. somehow.**

Bella stares at the message for a long time, agonizing over her tone, her freaking _capitalization_. She's put off texting Rose all week, telling herself that it's cool to wait a few days. But honestly, she was just too nervous up until now. Plus, at this point, it's getting weird. And Bella's never been that cool.

Slight panic skitters through her once she hits send and the message zips from her grasp. Sure, they bonded a little over Bella's dinosaur of a truck and Rose's playful disdain at the sputter of the engine, but maybe it's stupid to bother her about something like this.

It's Friday night. Rose is probably at some lakehouse having a real last summer with her real friends. She tosses her phone aside and decides to just forget all about it.

Or at least she would, except her phone vibrates on the blanket the moment it lands.

**[Rose] - Completely my fault. I prefer you un-exploded but that's just my selfish preference :)**

About a second later, it buzzes again with another message.

**[R] - Also, hi! I'm happy to hear from you. I wasn't sure if you'd text me.**

[B] - hi. why wouldn't i?

**[R] - Doesn't matter, I have you now. What are you up to?**

**[R] - No let me guess... Reading and listening to Sleater-Kinney or something.**

Bella looks down at her thumb holding her page and the Fiona Apple CD spinning in the little stereo Charlie got her for her birthday last year. Either she's entirely too predictable, or Rose was listening _really_ closely to Bella's playlists droning softly from the headphones permanently hanging around her neck.

[B] - you would tell me if you were psychic right?

**[R] - no.**

[B] - fine then. what are You doing?

**[R] - Burning pictures of mike newton.**

[B] - as one does

**[R] - Jessica says it's the only way she can move on for real. I'm here for moral support or something**

[B] - you just like setting shit on fire

**[R] - Maybe... but how would you know?**

[B] - you're forgetting i was your lab partner

**[R] - You're still my lab partner. Technically. Until I get my next one in about... three months**

Bella feels the dumb grin pulling at her mouth. They talked a bit like this in school, but there was always classwork to be done and thirty other classmates surrounding them. She's never really had Rose all to herself before.

[B] - oh, you're stuck with me!

**[R] - Hardly. You're so bad at science, I feel like a mensa candidate around you. In the lab anyway**

**[R] - Everywhere else I just feel silly**

[B] - you? SILLY?

**[R] - Downright foolish**

[B] - that's literally not possible... you're Rose. Hale.

**[R] - You look so small from up here on this pedestal!**

Bella presses her lips together and nods to herself. She's definitely guilty of getting lost in the glitter and gold of Rosalie Hale, but maybe that's what pushed her into sending the text in the first place. To get to know her for herself and not the girl everyone thinks they love.

[B] - okay okay. sorry.

**[R] -That's better**

**[R] - How do you feel about bonfires?**

[B] - more fire? okay pyro

**[R] - I can't help it if I get a rush...**

**[R] - But no, I meant that there's a bonfire tomorrow night. Kind of a going away thing for Emmett. Do you want to come?**

[B] - i don't know. it's not really my kind of thing

**[R] - I know. But I thought we could hang out, maybe ditch if it sucks (it will)**

Emmett's a nice guy. She heard he's going to Ohio State on a football scholarship. They've spoken a few times around school, but she doesn't really know him or his crowd. But then, Rose will be there. Rose _wants_ her there.

**[R] - We didn't get to see very much of each other outside of school :(**

Track four on her CD always skips and repeats the jarring cut for about ten seconds. _Love ridden, love ridden, love ridden, love ridden-_ Bella chews on her lip and ignores it. Her thumbs hover indecisively over the keyboard.

[B] - uhhh okay fine. but you marooned me, remember?

**[R] - And I'm okay with that! As long as you're not in danger of exploding**

**[R] - I'll pick you up at 8:30, riot girl**

…

…

By the time Charlie comes downstairs the next morning, Bella is already wide awake and scrubbing beneath the burners on the stove. She can't really feel her arms anymore, but she's so zeroed-in it barely matters.

Charlie sidesteps the bucket of dirty mop water to get to the coffee maker. "Uh, Bells? You doing alright?"

"Yeah, why?" she asks. The kitchen sparkles around them under the humming overhead light.

"Because it's five in the morning. Did you sleep at all? You seem…wound up."

She stops scrubbing and leans a hip against the counter. "I got invited to a thing," she says after a moment. She peels off her gloves and drapes them over the edge of the sink, keeping her eyes low."By Rose."

"Well, there you go! That's great. You've been stuck on that girl forever, it's about time-"

"Dad."

"Right." He holds up his hands. "Totally cool. I'm cool."

She looks around at the mess she made in her feverish cleaning. "I'm not. Clearly."

Charlie looks a bit uncomfortable, but he pushes it aside easily enough for her sake. "Look, I don't know much, but what I _do_ know is that girl is lucky you said yes. Not the other way around."

…

…

**[R] - Bella! Are you awake?**

[B] - yeah, what's up?

**[R] - Just checking if we're still on for tonight. Jas said there's going to be a meteor shower, if that helps!**

[B] - well, i was definitely going to back out until you said meteor shower

**[R] - Please drop out of college and pursue a career in comedy**

[B] - anything beats english, right?

**[R] - Exactly. I'm glad you're starting to see the light.**

[B] - okay but really, i'm still in

[B] - just a little nervous

**[R] - If you're scared you'll trip and fall into the bonfire, don't worry. I'll catch you :)**

[B] - i wasn't! but now i am thanks a lot

**[R] - You're welcome!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is there anything more high school than awkward texting?
> 
> me, writing this: god this is so stupid  
> also me: fantastic. drop it


	3. Chapter 3

They're wearing the same Sublime t-shirt. That's probably the fifth thing Bella realizes when she answers the door later that evening. The first few are less coherent, and maybe just a little less respectful.

"Hey," Rose says brightly. A week into the summer and she's already sunkissed and glowing in the last of the sunset. Behind her on the street, she has her dad's BMW. "What's the matter?"

"We match," Bella says dumbly. And it's true except for the fact that Bella's pretty much drowning in her t-shirt while Rose is nothing short of stunning in her DIY crop top that's curling a little around the edges. Bella glimpses a little of the flowery tattoo along her ribs. The one that grabbed the whole school by the throat the Monday after Rose's eighteenth birthday. She tears her eyes away and swallows. "Sublime's cool."

Rose grins and leans in so close Bella almost falls over. "I've never listened to them."

"Yeah, me either." Bella grips the frame of the door for a little support.

"Are you ready?" Rose asks, and she still hasn't backed up yet. Bella can feel the heat from her skin. She wouldn't be surprised if Rose could hear the way her heart is betraying her one attempt at coolness.

"Yeah."

She _swears_ Rose's blue gaze drops to her lips for a half-second before her sly grin returns full force and she pushes off from the doorstep. "Then what are we waiting for?"

.

"What's that?" Rose asks, gesturing to the CD case in her hands. Bella almost doesn't hear her through her colossal effort to touch as little of the car's interior as possible. Compared to her truck and Charlie's outdated cruiser, this is practically a gold bar on wheels.

She holds it up and lifts the sticky note off the front so Rose can see. "It's the new Deftones. He's always blasting nu metal in the parking lot, so I thought he'd like it."

"You brought Emmett a gift?"

Bella squirms a little in the soft leather seat. "Yeah, is that weird? I told you I don't really go to stuff like this."

"No," Rose says, smiling a little as they turn off her street. "It's just a little adorable. _I_ didn't even get him anything."

She frowns and looks down at the little good luck and goodbye note she'd written on the post-it. "Well, now I feel stupid."

"No, it's sweet." Rose reaches over and touches the back of her hand. "He'll love it. I promise."

.

The nicer houses in town are up this road. Bella's only been here once or twice over the past two years when she would get partnered up with Alice or Edward Cullen in their various shared classes. It's basically just mansion after mansion up here.

They can see the huge fire through the trees from the main road. Bella was expecting a fire pit and some lawn chairs, but leave it to a bunch of newly freed rural kids to stack wood to the branchline of the pines and then set the whole thing on fire.

Rose shakes her head in disapproval as they pull off the road and head up the gravel grade.

"Aw, they didn't wait for you to light it, zippo?" Bella teases in an unexpected blaze of courage. And why not? She would have been able to text it to her, easy.

Rose looks a little stunned before she has to fight the smile moving across her face. She gives Bella the side-eye. "I set your sleeve on fire _one time_ , and you'll never let me forget about it."

"It was kind of memorable. It's not every day someone tries to kill me. Plus, Mr. Camden practically emptied the entire fire extinguisher on me, which was mortifying, by the way."

Rose laughs. "But you were so cute. Like a little snow-Bella. And I maintain that it was your fault to begin with. You were distracting me."

"I was taking _notes_. You asked me to record."

"Well, it was distracting," Rose says with a shrug. "Nobody looks that cute when they're concentrating."

She says it so casually. Like she didn't just scramble what was left of Bella's functioning brain. She's so dumbfounded, all she can do is shut up and try to rewire her own brain in the charged silence Rose just decided to create out of nowhere.

.

After a little more bumpy driving, Rose parks behind a line of dusty cars cramming the unpaved driveway to a house she's never been to before, and turns the car off. She turns to Bella, her face oddly serious.

"We can go at any time. I don't want you to feel like you have to stay if you're uncomfortable. I know it's not your thing."

Bella nods once, touched. But it isn't necessary.

In her head, she was picturing lifted trucks and bad contemporary country music. In reality, it's not half as bad as they climb out of the car and walk around the house together. Sure, the music still sucks, but she recognizes almost everyone scattered around the fire in little groups. It's subdued in a way that has her social anxiety slowly flattening to her usual mild public discomfort.

The calm lasts about ten seconds before Emmett McCarty finds them like a heat-seeking missile. He's holding a branch with three flaming marshmallows skewered on the end.

"You made it!" he bellows, catching Rose around the waist and spinning around with her a few times.

"I thought you guys were going to wait for us," Rose says after wrestling free from his giant arm. She nods toward the giant fire as it pops and spits sparks into the sky. It's about thirty feet away, but Bella can feel the heat on her face from where they're standing.

Emmett holds up his free hand. "Oh sorry, whose party is it again? I think I forgot." He glances back and forth between the two girls before elbowing Rose in the ribs a few times. "Hey, Bella."

At the sound of her name, Bella's nerves spike and trip over each other. She holds the CD out in front of her as if she can somehow hide behind it.

"Hey, thanks. Wait-" Emmett blindly shoves his fiery marshmallow stick into Rose's hands. "Is this what I think- Holy shit!"

He holds the CD up to his buddies gathered around the fire all looking curiously in their direction. "At least one person here is _actually_ sad to lose me."

"Don't worry. Jas has been crying himself to sleep for the past two weeks," Rose says, twisting the marshmallow stick in her hands.

"Love that guy," Emmett says with a sigh. He turns back to Bella with the widest grin she's seen, probably ever, and throws an arm around her shoulders, giving her a bone-rattling half-hug. "Really, thanks, Bella! I've been looking for this album for weeks. They're always out at Sonic Boom. Hey, what's the matter? You look shocked."

Bella shakes her head a little. "I just...didn't think you knew my name."

Emmett laughs up into the evening sky. "Of course I know your name! Rose literally _never_ shuts up about you. It's all Bella this, Bella that, 'one more hour until my class with Bella!' I feel like I know you already."

"Oh my god," Rose mutters. When Bella looks up, her blond head is turned away.

…

…

So maybe. _Maybe_ interacting with her peers a little more during the past few years wouldn't have been the worst thing. But it probably has a lot more to do with Rose at her side than anything else. The girl knows _everyone_. And more than that, she knows how to talk to people for more than five minutes without running away- something Bella's been trying to figure out for the past eighteen years.

But glittery cloud of Rose Hale or not, Bella starts to feel a bit drained as the night darkens. Thankfully, Lauren Mallory is more than capable of carrying the entire conversation herself, and Bella can bow out gracefully with a final nod to Angela who seems to understand.

She grabs a water bottle from a cooler on someone's tailgate and lets out a breath, somehow both elated and relieved when she sees Rose untangling herself from her friends and gliding over. Shadows jump across her face in the wavering orange light from the fire.

"Hey." Rose leans slightly into her side. Her arm is warm against Bella's. "Do you want to go for a walk before I take you home?"

.

Rose runs her hands through her shampoo commercial hair and sighs up at the sparkling sky through the gaps in the trees. "You know when you're so tired, you feel like you're sunburned?"

"Yeah, I think so. What'd you do today?"

"We've been at the lake since school let out. I drove all the way back here for this."

Bella struggles along the uneven terrain that Rose seems to take in stride. They're about five minutes from everyone else, but you'd never be able to tell out here. "In your dad's BMW, no less."

She tosses a sunny smile over her shoulder. "Well, he wasn't going to take the Benz camping."

Bella trips but manages to catch herself on a tree trunk before she can break her ankle. So maybe she's still just a little bit dizzy from what Emmett said earlier, but how could she not be? "I thought you said walk, not _hike_."

"It's just a little hill. Do you need to hold my hand?"

It takes her a second to find her feet again, and when she looks up, Rose is watching her, amused. Like she's trying not to laugh. Like always.

Bella passes her just to prove she _can_ walk ten feet without disaster. "If I knew we were hiking…"

"So you don't want to look at the stars with me?" Rose says from behind her. Safe.

It's not funny, but Bella feels like laughing anyway. "What kind of question is that?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rose, to all her friends: Bella is so amazing and cool and smart and pretty and funny!  
> bella: but what could this mean?


	4. Chapter 4

As it turns out, Rose was actually leading her somewhere nice. There's a clear spot at the top of the hill that overlooks the narrow valley below. Overhead, the sky opens up through the trees, cloudless for possibly the first time since Bella moved to rainy little Forks.

"How'd you find this place?" Bella asks, taking in the clearing. There are a few log benches off to the side, and the grass is thin and trampled in a way that tells her they're not the first people to stand here and look up.

She sits on one of the benches and swallows as Rose settles beside her, close but not quite touching. Back at the party, it was easier to forget the thud of her heart and the heat of the blood rushing to her face, but it's silent out here now, and it's just them. The chill in the air cannot touch her.

"When I was like fifteen, I went through an astrophotography phase. Which is sort of stupid, considering where we live. But Em's dad thought it was cool. He let me use his telescope up here if I agreed to help Em with his math homewo- What? Why are you smiling?"

"Nothing. I just didn't think you were a space nerd."

"Oh, whatever. At least my interests take me out of my house."

"Hey," Bella says, nudging her shoulder with her own. "I go outside."

"Sure. When you run out of books."

Bella rolls her eyes, unable to shake her stupid grin. "But seriously, I _do_ think it's cool. My dad and I used to make up constellations because we didn't know the names. Even if we had a map, we'd be lost."

"Look," Rose says quietly. She puts her hand on Bella's arm and leans in as she points high up over the mountain in the distance. A single star drops from the night and shimmers across the sky until it disappears behind a peak.

Really, it's a poor excuse for a meteor shower. Just a few glittery streaks and it's over, but it's beautiful anyway in a delicate sort of way. Like a poem that gets thrown out or the way Rose used to push her hair out of her eyes with her wrist when they had to wear gloves in the lab.

In all the time she spent daydreaming about Rose Hale, she never once thought anything like this would happen. How had it? Rose is sparkly and bright, she has so many friends, and she's beyond brilliant. It just never seemed possible to exist beside her outside of chemistry.

They wait a good five minutes for another one before silently giving up and just taking in the usual constellations. "I think I dragged you out of your house for the astronomical equivalent of a dud firework."

"I liked it. All five seconds of it."

"Sorry. It's too early in the year for the Perseids."

Bella covers Rose's hand on her arm with her own. "Don't be sorry. I'm having fun. I swear."

And it's true. Shooting stars or not, this was the perfect way to say goodbye to her senior year and some of the friends she's made. She's probably made some new ones too. Like Emmett, who put his new CD on immediately after Rose tugged her away from him to go introduce her to her other friends.

"It's just made me think... maybe I wasted too much time hiding from everyone. I could have made so many friends, but I... I just didn't. I didn't think I could." Bella shrugs uncomfortably. "I don't really know what I was so scared of."

"You weren't missing much."

"I know you're just saying that."

"Maybe," Rose says with just a hint of her usual humor. "But you're here now. And I think Emmett's about ready to make you a friendship bracelet."

Bella smiles at that. A week ago, the idea of even speaking to the football captain would have seemed crazy. But Emmett's a lot sweeter than she could have expected. And he seemed to know a lot about her already. _From Rose_.

The thought drops a shelf in her stomach and scatters her nerves all over again. She squeezes Rose's hand. "So...you never shut up about me, huh?"

Rose lowers her chin slightly, flustered suddenly in a way Bella could never have imagined before tonight. "Well, you're a really good lab partner."

"Yeah, but you said I suck at science," Bella says. She almost can't believe the way it makes Rose turn her head away, but at the same time, it's almost _fun_ to tease her a little bit.

"You didn't _suck_. You just…never had any idea what was going on."

"I still don't."

"Yeah," Rose says softly. "I can tell."

"What does that mean?"

Rose tilts her head in the silver moonlight, decision wavering in the blue of her eyes.

Bella thinks of the first time she saw her junior year. Rose was coming out of the library with the wind in her hair, laughing as her brother got blindsided by a rogue snowball. Bella was just getting out of her truck, and Rose turned to her, cheeks red from the cold. " _Did you_ _ **see**_ _that?"_

That year they had English together. Rose was assigned the seat right behind her. All semester, Bella learned just what it felt like to burn alive.

Then senior year came around. And Bella thought maybe her crush had evaporated over the summer until she walked into chemistry a few minutes late on the first day, and there she was. Rosalie Hale. Glittery. Bright. Partnerless.

Now, in the dark at the end of it all, Rose is looking at her like she's the answer to their last hypothesis. Like the flourished plus sign that used to join their names together. Like the stars that fell from the sky.

"It _means_ that I spent all year drawing hearts because of you, and you have no idea."

Bella looks down at her shoes. They're not the same ones she wore on the last day of school, but the lopsided black hearts are there on the toes, across the laces, all over the pink canvas.

"That's me?" she says slowly.

"Yeah." Rose nods once. She pulls her hand away. "Please don't freak out. I just wanted to tell you before we… In case we spend more time together, and I-"

"Rose." Bella puts a hand on her shoulder and gives her a slight shake.

"Yeah?"

"I think you're freaking out."

"And…you're not?" Rose asks, treading carefully. Needlessly. "I just told you I have feelings for you."

"Freaking out? No. But I think I'm still overwhelmed from the party."

"What?"

"I still have a lot to process, I think. And I'll probably be where you are now at about…noon tomorrow. Give or take." Bella makes a weighing gesture with her hands then shrugs. "So if you wanna hang out _then_ , I might not be very good company."

Rose shakes her head. "You're so weird."

Bella laughs and stands, holding both her hands out to help Rose up. "Yeah, but _you_ have feelings for me."

…

…

The lights are on downstairs when they roll to a stop in front of her house. They didn't talk much on the drive. Rose was content to let Bella plug in her MP3 player and control the mood. She'll have to make Rose a mix one of these days- Rilo Kiley and Stereolab. Stars, obviously.

Bella glances over at Rose drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. She looks so unbelievably tired. Everybody knows their lake house is in California. She must have driven the entire day to make it back for Emmett. And for her as well, Bella realizes much too late.

"Are you okay? Do you want to come inside and rest for a little while?"

"I'm alright. I don't live very far," Rose says, "but thanks."

It's more than tired. She looks _bummed_. Which is just plain wrong. Bella wants to smack her own forehead. Rose probably thinks it's not mutual and up on that hill was just Bella's awkward and _nice_ way of letting her down easy. Which literally could not be further from the truth.

"Hey, Rose?"

"Hm?"

"Do you want to get breakfast tomorrow? Late tomorrow, because you should definitely sleep for like, twelve hours. But yeah, breakfast?"

"Sure," Rose says, brightening so much it makes Bella's chest ache for her.

"I had fun tonight. Thanks for inviting me." Bella leans over the console and kisses her cheek before her courage can leave her. It's only a warm flash of contact, but it nearly leaves her breathless. "Drive safe, okay? Text me when you get home."

Rose waits until she gets inside before she drives off. And about ten minutes later as Bella's changing into her pajamas, her phone buzzes on her dresser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you didn't have a moment of vulnerability in the woods with the hottest girl in school, did you even go to a rural american high school?


End file.
